Good news for people who love bad news

In 2008, Canadian researchers made a scary prediction: In our warming world, boreal forests would stop absorbing excess carbon and start contributing to climate change as soon as 2020.

What would cause this switch? The mountain pine beetles that have been eating their way though tens of millions of acres of alpine forests, leaving swaths of decaying trees in their wake. "When trees are killed, they no longer are able to take carbon from the atmosphere. Then when dead trees start to decompose, that releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere," study author Werner Kurz of the Canadian Forest Service told the Associated Press.

Beetle killed trees in Colorado

That could exacerbate the global warming that contributed to the outbreaks in the first place. Warmer temperatures have allowed beetles to survive farther north, at higher elevations and make it through the winter.

"This is the kind of feedback we're all very worried about in the carbon cycle — a warming planet leading to, in this case, an insect outbreak that increases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which can increase warming," Andy Jacobson, a carbon cycle scientist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Boulder, Colo., told The Associated Press.

It turns out that beetle-killed trees actually stop releasing carbon dioxide when they die, and don’t decay right away. Nicole Trahan, a University of Colorado researcher who co-authored the study, says that a large portion of the CO2 trees release has been recently taken in through photosynthesis. When trees die, they stop photosynthesizing, so respiration (the act of turning oxygen and sugar into water, CO2 and energy) stops, too. Living trees also put carbon into the soil, supporting a community of soil microorganisms. These soil microbe populations crash after the trees die, and no longer release CO2 to atmosphere.

To summarize: when trees die, less carbon dioxide is removed from the atmosphere, but less is released from the soil as well. (Want to know more about the study? Check out this handy videomade by the researchers).

Carbon emissions do pick up a few years after the trees die, as needles start breaking down, but researchers found that was not enough to offset the loss of the trees and soil microbes respiring. Also, dead trees take a long time to decompose in the cold, dry climate of the Colorado alpine forests where Trahan did her research. So carbon will likely be stored in dead trees for a while, unless a big fire sweeps through and burns all the trees up (although contrary to conventional wisdom, fire is no more prevalent in beetle-killed forests than anywhere else, meaning dead trees will likely decompose before they burn).

In a related, unpublished study, Trahan and her research team also found that beetles kill selectively, meaning some trees survive the attack. Those that live actually do better after their neighbors die, because there are more nutrients, sunlight and water available. So they grow faster, off-setting CO2 released by decaying dead trees.

The findings are significant because they show how important it is to study predictions like the ones made by the Canadian team on the ground. The study should also dispel fears, like those expressed by NOAA scientist Jacobson, that bark beetle outbreaks are both caused by climate change and also make it worse. Trahan is quick to point out that her findings should not be applied to warmer, moister forests, where dead trees decay faster. But for alpine forests, she says beetle kill “will have less climate change implications than we originally supposed.” Phew!

More from Climate Change

After 9 years of extensive study regarding the issues, impacts and opportunities presented by this unprecedented beetle kill epidemic that continues to sweep across the West for the last 18 years, with the only expected slow down being the result of literally eating themselves out of 'house and home'. Historically, it has been only the Lodgepole Pine, but now the beetles have not only evolved to regenerate twice a year, at least in some areas, but they are plowing through Ponderosa Pine, Whitebark and Limber Pine, even hitting the Spruce that are mixed in some of the Pine stands. Further, they now have crossed the Continental Divide from British Columbia and are working their way into the Boreal Forest and the Jack Pine stands.In full disclosure, my company utilizes some of this reclaimed dead timber to create the most environmentally friendly, incredibly, beautiful and exotic appearing wood floors, paneling, siding, and more. Our reclaimed wood products are very affordable, about the price as regular white Pine, Spruce or Fir, and especially when compared against most all other reclaimed wood products. Though we feel they are the most beautiful in their natural state, they can be stained or painted. We offer pre-finished products with your choice of water-based clear coats, stains, and paints that are ready to install and use, as well as unfinished products. Lumber and wood products manufactured from dead timber is far more costly to process than manufacturing from green, fresh cut timber. One of the primary reasons is simple, but enormously impactful, and it creates a lot of loss, sorting and re-manufacturing cost... Dead trees have cracks, lots of them, and this equates to cracked boards. We need to promote the utilization of beetle killed timber for biomass to produce heat and energy, and gasification will produce wood fuel (syngas) that can be burned in today's engines without modifications.Unfortunately, many of us with knowledge as to the extent of the rippling effects feel it might well take an enormous fire to create enough awareness in the public to spur our politicians into proactive action for the cost will be in the billions throughout the West, but the cost of doing nothing more than is happening now is far larger. We believe and are proving that the free market can off-set this cost, but it is not going to work real well if we have to continue to compete with a heavily subsidized Canadian wood industry that is 'dumping' on the US Market at less than it cost to produce. Also of note, the beautiful blue and other colors that result when the beetles kill the tree, is considered a 'defect'by lumber grading standards - absolutely ridiculous! We market it as "Blue Pine, The Wood That Mother Nature Paints"... a gorgeous, exotic appearing eco-friendly alternative to expensive imported woods, cork and bamboo products that do little to address the needs for cleaning up our own backyard and bringing some manufacturing back to the USA. Every single one of our customers throughout the country will tell you the same thing we are, 'this wood is stunning and it should be worth MORE rather than less than standard white wood products from Spruce, Pine and Fir.Sincerely,Randy PiperGreenWay Building Products, LLCBeetlekillwood.com